1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computers and computer software. More specifically, the present invention relates to database management systems and methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commercial off the shelf (COTS) database software engine cache management systems generally utilize LRU (Least Recently Used) and other database cache management techniques that attempt to maximize actively accessed data references in a database cache. These conventional database caching algorithms generally have no knowledge of the next query and its data references. As such, conventional database cache management algorithms are generally sub-optimal with respect to query throughput.
Efforts to improve query throughput have included increases in the size of cache. However, this approach is limited by the amount of overhead (locks, latches and pointers) associated with data in cache. This overhead limits the speed of a central processing unit in a retrieval of the data.
Hence, a need exists in the art for a system or method for an improved database retrieval and cache management scheme to reduce the execution time per query and thereby improve overall throughput on a given hardware/software platform.